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Nixscho Romano
Complete with a title in a language that the author made up, Nixscho Romano is part treatise on epistemology, part paranormal action novel, and part conspiracy mystery thriller, with a heavy helping of literary shout out and horror tropes... and that's before the cosmic horror mindscrew sets in. It tells the story of a team of self-styled paranormal investigators: Coleridge, a paranoid academic emerging from a decade of self-imposed isolation who believe that paranormal threats present global danger on a cataclysmic level, Quentin, his loyal partner and the team muscle, and Rose, a brave but sheltered young woman with an uncommon skill in drawing weird things into the open. The are joined by Enigma, a (possibly) psychic cat. At the beginning of the series, they are down on their luck, with only a few vaguely paranormal encounters and no proof. However, as the plot thickens, more and more supernatural secrets come to light, while the mindscrew gets heavier. A *Action Girl *After The End: One chapter states that the setting is this. It goes on to become indicate that the "end" was the very real Toba supervolcano eruption some 70,000 years ago. *Agent Mulder: Compared to normal people, everyone on the team comes off this way, but Coleridge takes the cake. Rose is his default Scully, though often it isn't disbelief in the paranormal that drives her but skepticism regarding Coleridge's methods. *All Myths Are True: Coleridge certainly thinks so. He might be right. *All Theories Are True: Discredited theories are a major recurring theme. Some of the most common include the theory of the humors, miasma, vitalism, and aether. *Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: One of Rose's unnamed friends. *Alternate Reality Episode: Metamorφeses consists of three short alternate takes on the story, with heavy helping of mythological allusion (all the titles are characters mentioned in Ovid's work): Tiresias is a Gender Flip version with all sexes reversed. Achilles features the lead characters with superpowers, and plays straight some of the paranormal action tropes the series skirts. *Always Someone Better: Rose has well-concealed but long-standing angst regarding the fact that her sister is wealthier, more stable, and all-around more successful, despite being younger and barely out of college. *Ambiguous Disorder: Rose is socially odd, to say the least, though the exact nature of her issues hangs somewhere between social anxiety and actual revulsion toward emotional connection with others. She has an apparent difficulty adjusting to the adult world, leaving her unable to get a job or afford her own lodging. Further, she is constantly speaking to herself under her breath, has considerable difficulty maintaining relationships, can switch haphazardly between withdrawn and vulnerable to actively self-isolating and abrasive, lacks common knowledge in favor of trivial knowledge, and displays blunted and unorthodox emotional responses. **Coleridge definitely suffers severe paranoia. However, he also shows a smattering of traits - lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, a preponderance to boredom, and violent impulses - associated with something like sociopathy. Later on, he seems to develop difficulties distinguishing fantasy from reality, though the Mind Screw nature of these moments makes it impossible for the viewer to be sure. **Possibly an enforced trope in-universe. Coleridge has expressed his opinion that modern psychology focuses far too heavily on meaningless labels. *Ambiguous Gender: The cat, though unspecified is a better term. On the few occasions when gendered pronouns are used, Rose uses masculine, Quentin uses feminine, and Coleridge, the actual owner, never uses such pronouns. *Antiquated Linguistics: Coleridge slips in and out of them, ranging from merely old fashioned to Shakespearean. See also Sophisticated as Hell and Totally Radical. *Asexual: Not one member of the main trio actually has a specified sexual orientation, and No Kissing, No Hugging is in effect. However Word of God has confirmed that Quentin specifically is unconcerned with matters of the flesh. **It's also worth noting that Rose is extremely ignorant of sexuality ("people do that?!"), has openly wondered what sexual attraction feels like, and the only time she showed interest in a man was when he showed interest in her first, being the first in her life to ever do so. **Coleridge invariably brushes off any advances toward him and speaks of they pointlessness of carnal pleasure and the weakness of those who desire it. That said he, may be a better example of Married To His Work and Celibate Hero, and sometimes shows signs of raging sexual frustration. **Johann (who is definitely not this) seems to demonstrate this in the rest by means of contrast. Although he clearly has a high sex drive, he is never seen doing anything, sexually, much beyond what many people actually do in real life. Yet Coleridge and Rose (and probably Quentin, but it's hard to tell) clearly think he's a perverted freak for it. *Attending Your Own Funeral: Coleridge does it. It's implied not to be the first time, and is part of the indication that he is most likely living under an assumed identity. **This is even conversed, when it is suggested that Coleridge could hardly be expected to resist witnessing something like his own death. *Author Avatar: Coleridge is reportedly one, per admission of Word of God, and many of Coleridge's rants are about things that bother the author. Keep in mind that Coleridge is paranoid, socially isolated, perpetually angry, has more irrational fears than you can count on one hand, is suggested to have a small penis, and, per Word of God, is an idiot. B *Badass Normal: Most of the main cast regularly find themselves pitted against supernatural beings. Quentin is the most badass, but the most dubiously normal. *Badass Preacher: Father Jack is not only a Catholic priest, with all the trappings, but he is also a poster child for Real Men Love Jesus, and able to hold his own. This isn't to say he's an entirely healthy individual. *Bathos *Beware The Nice Ones: Rose is the most normal, down-to-earth, sociable, and innocent of the main characters. She's also willing to put up with a lot. She also has killed more than her fair share of monsters. **Quentin is possibly a more clear-cut, if less visible example. At best he can come off as gentlemanly and doting. At worst, he is an Unfettered Implacable Man out for blood. And this is usually aimed at those who forget that his apparent Undying Loyalty is not My Master, Wrong or Right. *Bizarrechitecture: Coleridge’s house was designed to be mentally plausible but deeply odd and unnerving on a more subconscious level. Worth noting is that though it is a large house, it has many small rooms, all attached to one another in unintuitive, labyrinthine ways. It was also supposed to evoke the sense of living in a tunnel or burrow, with small rooms and inadequate lighting. *Borrowed Catchphrase: Apparently Rose is fond of using Coleridge's catchphrases when he isn't there to see it. *Bottomless Bladder: Being borderline The Needless, at least to outward appearance, Quentin has this as an extension. Apparently he can hold it for hours with ease, and possibly well over a day or two. This is demonstrated during a cross country trip, where Rose and Coleridge stop to pee several times, but Quentin, to their suspicion and fascination, never does. *Bungled Suicide: It seems that Coleridge had this during his "exile." (Though Coleridge was at the time so delirious that he barely remembers and details and most likely could not have distinguished a dream from reality. It's not entirely clear what he did, though it seems he emptied his gun of bullets and splattered blood on the walls, during a time when he was severely malnourished. He woke up some time later, concluding that he had even failed at dying, and wondering if he was even allowed to die. May count as Interrupted Suicide, as it is implied that he only survived thanks to Quentin treating his wounds. C *Cannot Convey Sarcasm: A subversion. Rose, despite being, or perhaps thanks to being, a Sarcastic Devotee, apparently has difficulty turning off her sarcastic tone, and says things that can be interpreted as either sarcastic or not, often with few to no clues as to whether they really are. *Cats Are Magic: The team cat is possibly psychic or otherworldly, or so Coleridge is convinced. It certainly looks the part, being entirely black and having Mismatched Eyes, one blue, one green, as well as possessing Ambiguous, or at least unspecified, Gender. **One episode implies that the cat may be a full-blown Eldritch Abomination in A Form You Are Comfortable With. *Clint Squint: Squinting is one of Coleridge's primary forms of expression. *Conveniently An Orphan: The fact that nearly all of Coleridge's family, friends, hometown, and schoolmates are dead becomes very useful in a world where knowing someone's name grants power over them. *Cool Big Sis: Rose is an unusually wholesome variety when in Friend to all Children mode. *Conspiracy Theorist *Crazy Survivalist: Coleridge was this for a while. Then he decided to get more proactive in his methods. D *Darwinist Desire: When Coleridge considers the idea of obtaining an heir, he begins to consider it exclusively in terms of procuring a viable egg cell. This leads to an Imagine Spot where he pictures potential children with every woman he knows (i.e. most of the female cast) and ranks them based on the genetic predispositions of their mothers. He then concludes that they are all inadequate and realizes what he really wants is a clone. *Despair Speech: Coleridge is prone to them. They are invariably subject to Gilligan Cuts of him going right back to work. Partway through the story, these serve less to be comedic and more to demonstrate how obsessed he really is, given that he can't give up even when he knows he should. *Does Not Like Shoes: Rose is often without shoes. Coleridge brings it up, claiming that the only people who do that the only people who do that are hippies, people with foot fungus, and autistics. *Doom Magnet: Coleridge. It isn't so apparent at first, but it is foreshadowed by the way that virtually in nearly all of his anecdotes, he mentions that at least one person in it is dead now. It eventually becomes clear that virtually his entire family and many of the people he has known since are dead now. **It eventually becomes clear that his entire family and possibly his entire hometown and nearly everyone he went to college with are dead for random, unrelated reasons. *Dysfunction Junction: **Coleridge is a paranoid Conspiracy Theorist control freak with a Hair Trigger Temper. **Quentin is an emotionless Unfettered given to absolute loyalty. **Rose looks normal next to them, but lacks common knowledge in favor of obscure knowledge, has difficulty sustaining most conversations, and speaks in a manner that sounds permanently sarcastic. E *Everybody Has Lots of Sex: This is often implied to be the case - for everyone but the main characters. *Exhausted Eye Bags *Extreme Doormat: Quentin is Coleridge's to command, and he appears to feel nothing on the matter. The reason for this is later revealed to stem from the fact that Quentin sees human will as arbitrary and irrelevant, but seeks for specific purpose. For this reason, he is devoted to Coleridge, who acts according to a duty which he perceives independent of human will. This goes both ways, however. As long as Quentin believes Coleridge to serve higher duty, he will be loyal to him, but if he comes to believe that Coleridge has lost sight of it, his loyalty will be lost. *Eye-Obscuring Hat: Quentin is fond of his. F *Faking The Dead: Coleridge does this once onscreen, and is implied to have done it more than once. It's played ambiguously at first, with a legitimate funeral being held, the only oddity being that Rose looks like she's trying not to laugh. It's eventually revealed that she wasn't in on it, but merely knew Coleridge well enough to expect this kind of thing from him, and could barely keep a straight face. **Discussed when it is suggested that Coleridge could never be suicidal because he is too self-obsessed: you can't observe yourself committing suicide. It's then proposed that he is pseudocidal instead. *Family Unfriendly Aesop: Interpreting the moral of the story is Coleridge's hobby. Amongst his findings: **Trust no one ***Anything that helps you avoid the impulse to trust others is worth cultivating, including racism. **People fundamentally hate each other **Change makes people uncomfortable. Therefore, it is the right, nay, duty of society to suppress and if necessary, destroy, anyone who is different. **Giving up and saving yourself the disappointment of failure is usually best *Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Exactly what exists is up for debate, but the show suggests that any number of things may exist. The whole show runs on rejection of Meta Origin, so this is hardly surprising. *Faux Symbolism: During his hallucination, Coleridge sees an absurd amount of references to various mystic systems. Word of God suggests that they are purposefully meaningless, to hit home the meaninglessness of the whole hallucination. *Fearless Fool: According to Word of God, the main characters are all fearless in different ways. Coleridge is described as "fearless like a cornered animal." *Five Man Band: A meta-example. Word of God has it that the five man band was considered in the crafting of the dynamics of the main trio - if it had completely fallen apart. In an ideal world, Coleridge would be the smart guy, Rose would be the lancer, and Quentin would bethe big guy. Instead, Coleridge is the leader, Quentin is the lancer, and Rose is expected to be the chick. *Final Girl: Rose seems to take inspiration from this trope. She's decidedly the Token Wholesome amongst her friends, and finds that Nature Adores A Virgin. (She also seems to be playing off certain Virgin Power tropes; she hasn't met a unicorn yet, but you get the sense it would like her.) It's a deconstruction, however, as she seems cursed as a major Weirdness Magnet, and although she always survives her experiences, those around her have no such guarantee. *An alternate interpretation is that she is a deconstruction of an inversion of the trope: her childlike tendencies and sexual innocence are part of a defense mechanism inspired by the horrible things she has witnessed and survived. *First Name Basis: Only Rose calls Coleridge by his first name. It isn't obvious since she addresses him far more often than anyone else, but it’s implied she hadn’t realized the full implications of this until later in the series. The flashback to their first meeting reveals that he finds this odd, but doesn’t correct her. *Flyover Country: The main setting, for when the characters are lounging around, is set in a part of South Dakota that invokes this full force. **Coleridge's hometown in *For Science!: Johann's guiding principle, tied only with For The Love Of Beautiful Women! *Four Girl Ensemble: Rose's little circle of friends. Rose is actually the sweet/naïve, even if she may be the most intelligent overall, on account of being a social Genius Ditz at best, Annie is the team mom, while the mannish de facto leader is an aloof dark haired girl. The sexy one is straight up really gets around (she actually hit on Coleridge once). *Freud Was Right: In one of Coleridge's Sanity Slippage fever dreams, he finds himself naked and surrounded by other men, also naked. They are armed with swords. Coleridge doesn't get a sword. Overseeing everything is a giant statue of a nude woman with three rotating faces. Careful examination reveals they are Rose, Katrina, and Riley. *Friendly Enemy: Coleridge and Rose become these in a surprisingly heartwarming moment. Coleridge asks Rose to be his enemy, explaining that friendship is fleeting, but enemies never forget one another. It almost borders on a Relationship Upgrade: :Rose: "Will we be jealous enemies?" :Coleridge: "Of course. Only I can be allowed to kill you." G *Genius Bonus: The story crawls with obscure references to mythology, religion, folklore, cryptozoology, history, art, Medieval science, and literature. Viewers Are Geniuses sets in, as well. **A whole section be given just to the Literary Shout outs to the Divine Comedy alone: ***Coleridge: "The seventh circle, the first ring. To paraphrase Dante: Bloody Hell." ***When Gurchin, Johann, and Caelise turn traitor, they receive the nicknames Brutus, Crassus, and Judas. ***He also mentions a snowball's chance in Cocytus. *Genre Savvy: Coleridge has shades of this. Fat lot of good it does him; he knows he's in a Mind Screw series. *Gravity Is Only A Theory: Coleridge monologues about this: "They say that gravity is only a theory. Actually it's a phenomenon, but the explanations behind it are theories. Naturally, they're the best, most time-tested explanations the collective genius of mankind can produce, which is why they're probably wrong. *Green Aesop: Distinctly averted. Coleridge likes the environment better than humans by far (it's not much of a competition), but believes that the situation is hopeless. He at one point advocates littering to put nature out of its misery and accelerate the inevitable extinction of mankind in hopes that something better might follow. Of course, this being Coleridge, he was probably just trying to piss someone off with over the top cynicism. H *Hair-Trigger Temper: Coleridge: so many Berserk Buttons, so little time. *Hates Being Touched: One of Coleridge's many character tics. *Haunted House: One of the earliest instalments is set almost entirely in one. Coleridge attempts to take a scientific approach to this, trying to systematically quantify the psychological pressure on the inhabitants, and recording the stimuli involved in the perception of ghostly activity. This manages to freak out the residents, while at the same time, his attempts to violently enrage the haunting forces begins to turn his team against one another. *Heterosexual Life Partners: Quentin and Coleridge. Though all things considered, heterosexual may not be so much the case as asexual. *Hypocritical Humor: Despite owning an absurd number of guns, Coleridge is strongly in favor of gun control, his rationale being that people who hoard guns pose a significant threat to others (that is, to him), and besides, whereas he already has as many guns as he could need. I *I Can Change My Beloved: Katrina tried this on Coleridge, through largely unspecified means. It possibly worked, as he did give up his life of power-hungry ruthlessness, but it also led to a downward spiral of severe paranoia and isolation that eventually cut him off from both her and his parents, the only people to somehow still vie for him while he was an amoral social Darwinist jerkass. *Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The titles tend to be one word, rarely English in origin, and are often philosophical or mythological references. Examples include Gnosis, Maschalismos, and Gotterdammerung. *I Know Your True Name: Acknowledged. Word of God notes that Coleridge is well aware of it and would not be above adopting a false name and making everyone on his team do likewise, but refused to confirm or deny that Coleridge had actually done so. *Imagine Spot: In an uncharacteristically straight comedic scene, Coleridge ponders the idea of obtaining an heir - by obtaining an egg cell, probably from a woman he already knows. He proceeds to imagine several pairs of children, male and female, each a predicted mix between him and their mothers, and ranks them based on their mothers' genetic predispositions. To make the matter more fun, it isn't spelled out who the mothers are, leaving the audience to figure it out themselves. *Implied Love Interest: Coleridge and Rose, possibly? Their relationship arc makes it clear that they are closer to each other than to anyone else, in a way that neither has ever experienced. However, since both have never actually had a friend or even trusted anyone before, so the case is ambiguous. Word of god has it that theirs is not a love story, but a trust story. Make of that what you will. *In Medias Res: Most episodes begin with the characters already involved in the plot, usually through some sort of investigation, following a short time skip from the previous episode. This serves to both acknowledge but leave out however long they may have searched fruitlessly, and also facilitates condensing episodes into shorter periods of time. The series as a whole also begins In Medias Res, with background details, most notably how Rose came to join the team, revealed later. *Innocent Fanservice Girl: Whereas Rose is more of a token wholesome, it seems her sister used to go full circle become this trope from her total unawareness of sexuality. Of course, it doesn't tend to be played for obvious fanservice, given that she's underage in all the flashbacks. *The Insomniac: Coleridge *Intelligence Equals Isolation: The cast is full of smart and lonely people. Subverted in that they are isolated for reasons other than their intelligence, such as severe paranoia, No Social Skills, or a total lack of interest in the world. *Intimate Haircut: There's one with Coleridge and Rose. Interestingly, the intimacy is less the haircut itself per se (it doesn't lead to anything) but the fact that he actually allowed someone to hold a sharp object that close to his head and neck. *It's Always Spring: Averted. It's usually winter, but there is some seasonal change. L *Lap Pillow: A scene played partially for laughs consists of this. Coleridge, depressed that his plans haven't worked out sits on the couch gloomily. Rose, sitting uncomfortably on the other side, attempts a light Get Ahold of Yourself, Man smack, but he goes limp and tips over away from her. She manages to pique his interest for a moment, causing him to sit up, but disappoints him again. This time he falls toward her, gets promptly knocked off her shoulder, and falls onto her lap. Sternly asked to get up, he instead makes a reference to Hamlet, whereupon she threatens to knock him off personally. :Rose: ...and if you say 'country' again I will knock you off myself. :Coleridge: Sorry. I'll saying nothing instead. *Libation for the Dead *Like Parent, Like Spouse: Discussed. When Coleridge tries to convince Rose that she is better off leaving the path she has started down, he advises that she find a man that reminds her of her father and settle down. *Loners Are Freaks: Rose seems to be conflicted by this perception of her. Coleridge doesn't mind, as he genuinely doesn't care, though he's a freak for a host of entirely different reasons. *Love Makes You Crazy: :Coleridge: I believe in the love that the Greeks wrote of. :Rose: (squicked) You mean...? :Coleridge: The powers that be infect you with burning, vile passion that swallows you up and rends your will and drives you to madness and then they abandon you at the gates of Hades. To be avoided at all costs by a rational man. :Rose: Oh, the tragic variety. Yeah, that sounds like you. M *Mad Scientist: Arguably Johann. It's mentioned that he would never activate a superweapon himself, but knowingly creates them for people who very probably will with no apparent dilemmas. *Magic Versus Science: Coleridge is very hung up on this, perceiving most scientists to be Flat Earth Atheists and Arbitrary Skeptics. To them he’s a laughingstock (or at least he thinks he is. Not many have even heard of him). **Subverted however, in that he believes himself to a scientist, and the only true scientist at that, because the rest ignore evidence to fit an ideology. *Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Nearly everything. *Mind Screw: While the main plot is more or less sensible, background details are thrown which threaten to make the whole thing impossible to understand. This is apparently intentional, as the work is meant to be impossible to understand. To quote the author: :"Romano is a bit like a myth. When I was young, I had an illustrated book of traditional faeries. It terrified me. I realized that such a book could only be made when people looked out and realized what they did not know. So I made an unknowable universe." *Mismatched Eyes: The team cat has one green eye and one blue eye. Coleridge is convinced it is psychic, though not because of the eyes specifically. *Moral Sociopathy: While it's debatable whether Coleridge actually is a sociopath (he has a number of traits associated with the condition, but it is never stated outright) his MO is very much this trope. He cares very little for humans as such, but subscribes to an ethical code which he identifies as duty, and looks down on moral codes that seek mutual goodwill as ultimately self-serving. *Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Johann. Interestingly, on account of apparently having no last name, he is sometimes addressed as Doctor, but not as Dr. anything. *Mr. Exposition: Coleridge is this. Sometimes to Rose, and sometimes when he mutters things to himself as he tries to figure things out. He’s an Unreliable Expositor at times, too, to make matters more complicated. *Muggle Best Friend: Annie to Rose. Deconstructed: Annie has always taken it upon herself to try to help Rose enjoy a normal life, even when Rose was just a naïve girl with dubious social skills. When Rose joins with Coleridge, Annie tries to help her not fall into total isolation from the wider world, but ends up in over her head. *Multiple Choice Past: Coleridge sometimes contradicts his past. It's implied he does this on purpose, to demonstrate that he has no obligation to provide the truth on the subject and remind people that they are not entitled to the truth. At first it seems like Quentin is doing the same thing, until several alternate accounts are all independently verified, and the narrative plays them as always true, and sometimes even as a Take That to fans obsessed with canon. One side story is even devoted to Quentin's exploits. It can't even maintain a consistent plot, featuring constant additions, time shifts, callbacks to things that never happened, and absurd amounts of things all happening within short periods of time. N *Nerves of Steel: Quentin. According to Word of God, the main characters are all fearless in different ways. Quentin is fearless on the grounds of having little to no fear to control in the first place. *No Accounting For Taste: Rose has this reaction to meeting Katrina, sarcastically asking "Is that what he's into?" Although some interpret this as actually meaning What's She Got That I Ain't Got? *Nobody Poops: Averted on an almost One An Episode basis. Some of the cases are actually significant to the plot, though others seem to be a deliberate screw you to this trope. **In a flashback to when Rose first joins the team, she is seen in the bathroom in Coleridge's house, noticing, with quiet confusion and perhaps some apprehension that the toilet seat is padlocked shut. **In another episode, Coleridge makes a comment about how vampire bats urinate profusely while lapping blood to rid themselves of plasma with no nutritional value. Cut to Rebekah (who he is being investigated for vampiric tendencies) in the bathroom, audibly peeing. *Noble Male Roguish Male: At first glance, educated, formal, obsessively precise Coleridge seems to be the noble to hulking, rough-voiced, gruffly taciturn Quentin. In actuality, Coleridge is rude, conniving, and prone to picking fights, while Quentin is polite, cultured, and wise. *No Hugging, No Kissing: Very much in play, despite the sexual imagery. It's to such a point that none of the main characters has even a confirmed sexual orientation. **Possibly a subversion, though, as the lack of physical intimacy isn't always a lack of romance. But that's another can of worms. *No Last Name Given: Quentin and Rose. Coleridge's surname (Sleet) is revealed in a gag. *The Not-Love Interest: Coleridge and Rose to one another. Word of God calls their relationship development a "trust story" rather than a love story. They become the only one the other opens up to, and it becomes increasingly clear that Rose is the only person Coleridge cares anything for, but they are unfazed by other relationships the other has and maintain their relationship in a purely intellectual capacity. O *Obfuscating Insanity: Coleridge takes to this when he believes he is being watched. (For the record, he's right.) He reasons that this is what the enemy expects, given his well-documented history of mental illness. Unfortunately, his hallucinations try to convince him that it is not a façade at all. *Old Flame: Coleridge's ex-girlfriend (where girlfriend is a term used very loosely), appears in an episode (actually two, one is a cameo). This happens at the same time that he is investigating phenomena best described as "the dead consuming the living". Coleridge decides this is probably not a coincidence and suspects that she may be planning to attack him. *Omniglot: Coleridge speaks an unspecified number of languages, and seems to be studying more over the course of the story. It is revealed that, with the exception of Greek and Latin and his native English, all of them are the languages of nations he believes cannot be trusted. These primarily include German, and Russian, and he's working on Japanese. In episodes set in the modern day, he seems to have added Spanish and possibly Chinese. ** Worth noting is that he's implied to be less fluent than he claims to be, and has even admitted that it's quite easy to memorize a few hundred words of a language and lie to people who wouldn't know better. It has been pointed out that he speaks with idiosyncratic pronunciations and syntax, and Quentin speculates that this is because he learned his languages out of books during his isolation, without ever speaking to any other people. *Our Monsters Are Different: Played with all over the board. More often than not, monsters are based on their oldest depictions (e.g. the vampires), but sometimes appear in different interpretations at the same time, making it unclear what is true. **Our Vampires Are Different: Definitely, even though it isn't especially clear what "our" vampires are. Revision of the theory goes something like this: psycho-cultural delusion -> marked mental disorders combined with predatory tendencies and exacerbated by physical illness -> all of the above but with rabies-like contagion effect -> physical contagion resulting in marked bodily alterations and predatory behavioral patterns -> biological element facilitating otherworldly penetration into an organic vessel. To phrase it more simply, the first explanation for isolated vampire-like phenomena is that it is psychological, as the suspects proved open to suggestion and may have been acting on what they thought a vampire to be. However, as the investigation found more activity, the possibility of an actual disorder characterized in part by violence was consider. This was later considered in light of transformative illness such as rabies. As the case grew more supernatural, it was at last proposed that all of the above might be part of a biological initiative which could prepare a body to act as a gateway for otherworldly possession, essentially allowing a demon to operate a corpse. P *Parental Abandonment: Suggested early on, but ultimately subverted. Coleridge may consider his parents to have abandoned him, but technically he abandoned them, and in any case he was already in his twenties by then and independent of them (financially if not emotionally). *Perfect Health: Averted, Coleridge's health is rather poor. This is usually used to hint that he hasn't been eating and sleeping again. *Politically Incorrect Hero: Coleridge's monologues on certain social issues can be positively cringe-inducing. That said, his arguments, when given, do make a twisted sort of sense if one assumes validity of his extreme cynicism. He has flat out said that it is good if ''only women, minorities, and the like are repressed, rather than everyone, and that trying to change the system is highly inadvisable, being more likely to make it worse than better. He is also openly proud of his xenophobia, citing his inability to trust others unlike him in any way as one his keys to never letting his guard down. **There's also the antiquated views he holds, which range from fifties era to downright medieval. Politically, he still seems to live in the height of the Cold War. *Powers That Be: To take a truly Agent Mulder interpretation, these include any number of nebulously related secret organizations, an apparently alien entity whose idea of communication involves encoding messages in patterns of improbable events, a demonic being who may or may not be the living personification of people's desire to kill in its name, a digital intelligence that is the sum total of all interconnected computers, and Coleridge's cat. *Properly Paranoid: It seems to be the favored interpretation that Coleridge is at least somewhat right, even amongst the Mind Screw. *Property of Love: The closest thing Coleridge has to a romantic fantasy seems to feature him literally owning Rose, since apparently that's what traditional marriage looks like to him. It's actually sort of heartwarming, seeing as the fantasy seems to depict it as loving, voluntary and supportive, while it ends with Coleridge noting that he couldn't ask that of her anyway. Of course, since it's unclear whether this fantasy actually originated with Coleridge himself, it doesn't actually shine much light on their relationship. R *Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Characteristic of the dialogue, especially of all of the main characters. Rose is given to a sort of stutter where she repeats a word several times before thinking of the next one, while Coleridge is guilty of disjointed and often endless sentences, repeating himself, and depending on the circumstance, either loading up on verbal filler or completely omitting it in favor of long pauses. The trope is somewhat subverted, however, as it is often used to demonstrate eccentricity, so normal people demonstrate it less. S *Sarcastic Devotee: Rose constantly criticizes Coleridge's personal flaws, but never fails to do her part in a mission. *School Is For Losers: Coleridge has a rant to this effect, arguing that school is a very slow and inefficient way to learn. He points out that teachers are rendered largely superfluous by the abundance of books, that one can read faster than a teacher can speak, and that testing is inherently inefficient because no one learns by taking a test. This attitude drove him during his childhood, where he often failed tests because he knew he knew all of the material and didn't see how it was relevant whether his teacher also knew. He also dropped of college/graduate school, though for different reasons. *Science is Useless: One of the villain leaders thinks so. He believes that the universe is fundamentally incomprehensible and that any understanding we have is our own inability to understand that we don’t understand, meaning we have been wasting our time concerning unapplied science and getting very lucky with applied science. Surprisingly, it is Coleridge who argues with him, but mostly because Coleridge hates him. *Seldom Seen Animals: Coleridge and Rose's spirit animals are a desman and a thylacine respectively, the latter of which is not only seldom seen, but has been extinct for about a century. *Sex is Evil: Not so much preached as a necessarily preassumption to understand parts of the story. *Ship Tease: Word of God states that he teases Rose and Coleridge because it amuses him, but will never go through with it because he finds their ten year age gap too unsettling. *Shirtless Scene: Somehow Coleridge manages to get far more of these than the considerably more muscular Quentin. They tend to hit home the fact that Coleridge is very very thin. *Sleeps With Everyone But You: At times, it seems that the entire world (strongly implied to run on Everyone Has Lots of Sex) is this to the main cast. Given that they're all a little odd, if not completely screwed-up, it may not be so surprising that they're excluded. *Smart People Play Chess: Averted in Coleridge's case. While there's no word on whether he's any good at it, he would sooner not play than risk losing. *Smoking Is Cool: Averted most of the time, where it is at best a thing that happens, and none of the main characters smoke. However, smoking is nearly ubiquitous in some of the flashbacks, and darned if it isn't cool. *Stepford Smiler: Fr. Jack, it seems. Unless he really is that cheerful all the time, which is possibly more terrifying. *Stoic Woobie *Straw Nihilist: Coleridge was reportedly one in his youth, of the psychopathic, no morality variety. He eventually hit a point where he realized that even his own wants and desires were nothing, and internalized a sense of nothingness so extreme that he could want neither to live nor to die. Rose, though not a nihilist herself, suggests that he is contradicting himself, as he still felt the desire to want. It's also implied that this ultimate desire, to want, was the first tenet of the "duty" to which Coleridge subscribes. *The Spark of Genius: Johann's inventions tend to be unlike anything else and work on unclear principles. Possibly justified, given allusions that suggest he already cracked efficient self-upgrading AIs years ago and has been riding the exponential growth potential of this for years now. Additionally, one of his inventions is a machine that, at least in theory, can measure localized deviations from conventional base-line physics. *Strong Family Resemblance: Rose and her sister. They could pass for identical twins, at least when they were kids, but the narrative is very unclear on whether they actually are. One account even implies, albeit obscurely, that they are not only different ages, but half-sisters. **Downplayed in Coleridge's case. His father is described as looking like him, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dissimile only with a different chin, gray hair, a different haircut, thirty extra years, and all the hallmarks of a life not spent in bitterness, fear, and sleep deprivation.] *Surreal Horror: Appears fairly often, especially when it is unclear whether the events are real or not. That is to say, constantly. T *Technical Virgin: Inverted. Coleridge claims to have done something tantamount to sex and could easily have gone as far as penetration if he had wanted to. The fact that he happened not to cannot be counted against him. *Temporary Love Interest *Thanks for the Mammary: Coleridge manages this, courtesy of Rose. Since he wasn't looking and Rose isn't exactly busty, it appears she assumed he wasn't aware and said nothing. Later he momentarily gazes at this hand before reaching for his beloved hand sanitizer. *The Chew Toy: Coleridge was meant to be someone whose getting punched would be comical no matter how much you like the character. Taken even farther in the non-canon retellings, including the gender flip one, which portrays Female!Coleridge getting punched in exactly the same light. *The Cynic: Coleridge can be very cynical, especially regarding human nature. Interestingly, he's about as far from a nihilist as can be, creating a combination that has proved to make him surprisingly charismatic with certain people. He spends a fair amount of time trying to "teach" cynicism to Rose, who, though a ray of sunshine compared to him, is not exactly an idealist herself. *The Gadfly: Coleridge lives and breathes this trope. His dialogue is filled with diatribes about touchy subjects that he may or may not even care about, as well as words aimed to mess with people's security, question their values, make them feel challenged, and/or subtly mock them. *The Ingenue: Despite the expectations of certain people around her, Rose is not this, exactly, at least not for most of the series, though she probably was not very long ago. She remains somewhat (though decreasingly) naïve and sexually ignorant, but grows to become a much stronger, more self-aware person. **Interestingly, some of her character development stems from a variation of the trope, the Woman Child. She is actively ashamed of the fact that she has virtually no adult experience, having been up until recently unemployed, not having her own home or apartment, and lacking any friends or romantic partners. *No Name Given: Many characters are never given names. Two of Rose's friends never get names, nor does her sister, or the recurring bartender, or the cat, or Coleridge's parents... And then if you add the characters implied to be operating under pseudonyms, you lose Coleridge, Quentin, Rose, Caelise, Johann, Gurchin... -practically everyone but Token Normal Annie. *The Needless: Quentin has been seen to eat and sleep, but can do without them for seemingly superhuman stretches if need be, and never shows any weakness when denied them. In addition, his pain tolerance threshold is extraordinary, and he has also demonstrated a seemingly Bottomless Bladder. *The Paranoiac *Therapy Is For The Weak: Coleridge believes so. And he's not about to be brainwashed by those mindbending medications either. *The Walrus Was Paul: Word of God has it that certain objects in the background were added that defy ready explanation. *The Watson: Rose is technically this, because her inexperience makes Coleridge talk down to her. Of course he usually does it just to be condescending. In return, she talks up to him to see if he’ll keep up, making much of her dialogue Genius Bonus. *This Is Gonna Suck: Arc Words: "We're screwed." *Token Wholesome: Rose. It plays into her role as a Final Girl deconstruction. **It's revealed at one point that this trope is present throughout her entire wardrobe, which is quite small to boot. It's also worth noting that most of the show is set during winter, and the cast wears appropriate clothing. *Training From Hell: Coleridge's nearly decade long retreat from society to master an enormous amount of knowledge is strongly implied to be the scholarly version of this. *True Companions: The trio. It's especially notable for Coleridge, a man incapable of trusting others, who slowly comes to be unable to accept that Quentin, or Rose, eventually, could betray him. **Getting to this stage isn't pretty, however. Before Coleridge can conclude that Rose would not betray him, he first decided that she must not betray him. This prompted him to attempt to control her and attempts at severing ties with all of her family and friends. V *Vagina Dentata: Coleridge refuses to rule out the possibility. Apparently, he keeps book with a bookmarked illustration, which Rose finds. She is squicked. *Verbal Tic: Rose ends a lot of sentences with "but". **And while we're on the subject, Coleridge must really love the word "screw." *Virgin Power: Rose's virginity is taken to be a factor if not the entire reason that she tends to draw out the supernatural. She's pointed out on one occasion that there's really no evidence that it isn't a more intrinsic trait to herself, as there is no control group, but Coleridge believes she oughtn't to mess with a good thing. **It is implied that it's not because Rose is a virgin that she has power, but because of who she is, which happens to be very chaste, and by extension, a virgin. ***She also doesn't swear, drink, or dress provocatively. On the other hand, she has been known to employ lethal force. *Virginity Makes You Stupid: Zigzagged with Rose. She's more socially awkward than stupid, and quite intelligent intellectually. While she can be naïve, it's clear that she was raised with more traditional values. *Visual Pun: When Rose looks under Coleridge's mattress, she finds magazines. (Not the paper kind. U *Unkempt Beauty: Rose has aspects of this. Her hair is constantly somewhat messed up, owing in part to the fact that it seems to be quite irregularly cut and longer in some places than others, for some reason. *Unreliable Expositor: Everyone, but especially Coleridge, who tries to explain the unexplainable the most often. W *Wall of Weapons: Coleridge has one. He also has a wall of crosses and holy water. *Weirdness Magnet: Quentin and Rose are considered to be this, and Coleridge considers it a valuable skill. As for Coleridge himself, he seems to be a Weirdness Magnet Magnet, and thus brings weird things to himself indirectly. **Although he was the one to find his cat, so... ***Actually it found him. *What a Piece of Junk: Coleridge's car is not only beaten up, but downright ugly. Word of God says it is intended to mirror his attempts and failures to live in the modern world. However, the car is extremely reliable, as it is something of an automotive Iron Buttmonkey. *What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?: Inverted on a meta-level, according to a joke made by the author, who wanted to give the story the feel of a psychotic going off his meds. *Would Hit A Girl: The Gender flip segment Tiresias of the non-canon special Metamorphoses, it turns out that everyone is this if that girl is Female!Coleridge. Y *You Need To Get Laid: Although he doesn't actually advocate getting laid, Jack clearly Coleridge is enormously sexually frustrated. **Coleridge does derive a lot of angst from his celibate status, but not because he actually wants sex. In actuality, he is asexual, and his only sexual encounters were used exclusively intended to assert and attain power. Having given up that lifestyle, he is extremely averse to actual intercourse, but struggles with finding adequacy within a sexually-based society, leading him to feel challenged by women, who represent this weakness, and those men who are not likewise bound. *Affably EvilSoft-Spoken Sadist *Sugar and Ice Personality *Implacable Man: Quentin can be one. *Multiple Choice Past: Quentin's backstory is flagrantly self-contradictory, and he seems to be fully aware of it. The show seems to portray it as all true. *Anti-Hero: The whole cast to some degree. Coleridge's mild Blue and Orange Morality make him the most noticeable example.